Long Beach IndyCar Event Selects Tix.com As Its Ticket Provider

Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach President & CEO Jim Michaelian "decided after last year's race to make a change in his ticket provider" for the Izod IndyCar Series event, opting to replace Ticketmaster with California-based Tix.com, according to Doug Krikorian of the Long Beach PRESS-TELEGRAM. Michaelian "had a long relationship with Ticketmaster," but he "liked the bid presented by Tix.com and its founder, Robert Edmiston." Michaelian: "We wanted a web-based company that offered our customers an opportunity to select their individual seats -- and Tix.com was the perfect fit. This substantially enhances their ticket-buying opportunity. Before you even select your seat, you can click to view the racing perspective that it will give you during the race." Michaelian also noted fans under the new system "can print out your own tickets on-line." He added that there will be "bar code scanning equipment at every admission point this year." Michaelian: "We've definitely become more ticket friendly. ... I definitely think this is an upgrade in the ticket process" (Long Beach PRESS-TELEGRAM, 1/11).